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Ewan eighth on stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia

Stage seven winner Caleb Ewan has finished eighth on stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia in another bunch sprint finish in windy conditions.

The stage, won by Fernando Gaviria (Quickstep), marked the final opportunity for the fast men as the race heads to the mountains for the concluding eight stages.

Ewan, 22, was positioned well behind teammate Luka Mezgec in the final but wasn’t able to find a clear run to the line, once again colliding with another rider as he launched his final sprint.

“At this level you have to have a lot of things go right for you,” Ewan said at the finish.

“I feel like I have had a lot of frustrations this Giro, things can go either way so easily in a sprint, but I am happy to have gotten a stage win here this year which is an improvement on 12months ago.

“Today was a really strong head wind in the last ten kilometres so we knew we had to wait a little later than usual to move to the front. The team rode really well again and we were doing everything right up until that final sprint again.

“I feel good physically. I felt good yesterday and I felt good again today. I will continue the Giro day-by-day. When I feel myself too deep in fatigue it will be time to stop and focus on the other races I have coming up.”

How it happened:

Stage 13 was the flattest stage of the 2017 Giro d’Italia and the final chance for sprinters to make a real impact.

The predicted wet weather never eventuated and was instead replaced by powerful winds in the closing 30km.

A breakaway of three form early in the race and they proved easy to control for the sprinters outfits throughout the 168km stage.

With the advantage never reach more the three-minutes, the trio were eventually brought back to the pack with 20km remaining.

A block head wind kept any late attacks in check as the sprinters team positioned for their final opportunity to sprint.

Gaviria proved too good for the victory ahead of Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) with Ewan in eighth. ORICA-SCOTT’s general classification leader Adam Yates once again finished safely in the bunch.